


The End of an Era

by twodimensionaltrash



Series: The Chaldea Collection [7]
Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Character Study, Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:47:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24395245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twodimensionaltrash/pseuds/twodimensionaltrash
Summary: The King and the Future. Character study in deep 3rd POV of Gilgamesh entrusting humanity to Voyager.
Series: The Chaldea Collection [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1145015
Comments: 10
Kudos: 63





	The End of an Era

**Author's Note:**

> Not everything I wanted to say from Gilgamesh's POV about Voyager, but at least it's a start. This is also [on Tumblr, originally posted 05/26/2020.](https://novelelitist.tumblr.com/post/619214812562554880/the-end-of-an-era-the-king-and-the-future)
> 
> Shout-out to my homie Bee for writing Enkidu’s three lines at the end.

The child gazes upwards toward the cosmos with twinkling eyes like pale blue dots. King Gilgamesh mimics him. He folds his arms and looks to the sky. He has been in love with it a long time.

Stars burst. Planets clash. With each cosmic collision, another solar system collapses. A galaxy wraps around itself, coddling the celestial bodies it carries within. 

Beyond two silhouettes, the horizon stretches in a blur, like an unfinished painting. It is the blank canvas humanity desired for its future.

Voyager tip-toes into the king’s personal space and tugs on the vibrant red cloth flowing behind them. “What do you think is out there, King Gilgamesh?” 

Gilgamesh generously allows Voyager to cling to him. He rests his chin atop the back of his hand in thought.

As far in the universe as Sha Naqba Imuru allows him to know and further, there is much that humanity has yet to see for itself. There are unnamed constellations and uncharted courses; there are unmanned planets and untouched civilizations. 

“Surely it would spoil the adventure if I told you,” he says.

Voyager’s grin spreads from ear to ear. He shakes his tiny head, and his hair flops all over the place. Gilgamesh snickers and ruffles the boy’s hair. 

How unfair, he thinks, that he was damned with the ability to see what could never belong to him. Even if the stars could never be called his, how desperate he is to experience them for himself. There is no purpose to a clairvoyance that dares show impossibilities. 

If all things man creates are meant to be his, isn’t the child the same?

As he pulls back, the ghosts of chains constrict his body. His arms lock in place. Voyager tilts his head. He opens his mouth to speak, but Gilgamesh interrupts him. 

_Let me go._

The king’s words are cut off in his throat.

He knows the Chains of Heaven to be abstract--their very existence grounds him to man. They’ve been weaponized against men lesser than him, but to have them tangled around himself is suffocating. Even knowing the futility, he fights against them. 

Voyager reaches out and takes Gilgamesh’s hand in both of his own, a panicked expression on his young face, as if he cares. It’s disgusting. 

And yet Gilgamesh can’t hate it.

This stupid, starry-eyed boy is everything. 

He was crafted by humanity and all of its efforts. He is their curiosity and joy and loneliness and fear. He is their desire to explore and to wander, to collect all there is to know. He is their desperation for love and companionship. And he, too, belongs to the king.

He is everything.

Tears form in Gilgamesh’s eyes, but he does not let them fall. 

The impressions of chains are replaced with the impressions of fingertips that do not belong to the satellite. They may not even truly be there, but the pain dulls. 

Enkidu rests their chin on Gilgamesh’s shoulder. 

Voyager’s eyes widen. His mouth forms a small O. Perhaps he sees them, too.

The One True King drops to his knees. His hands clasp themselves over Voyager’s. 

Hands that men apart from every living creature on Earth. 

Hands that build and create and kill and destroy. 

Hands that toppled the Age of Gods. 

Hands carrying the remains of Man.

> _“To think that at long last, it’s over.”_

> _“As long as journey lives on, so do we.”_

> _“If you insist. Hmph. Perhaps you’re more human than I am.”_

> _“It had meaning. What we did.”_

> _“Tch. Yet it left us without entertainment! What do we do from here?”_

> _“There is nothing that needs to be done but watch how far our hopes and dreams can go.”_


End file.
